Monday, March 16, 2015

The Narwhal Registry - Part One

Now that I've shared with you all our Honeymoon plans, it's a good segue into our discussing our wedding registry.

Mr. Narwhal and I have been living together for over two years now, own our home and for the most part we have the essentials. While we do have a traditional registry we are keeping it limited to things that are in desperate need of upgrading.

So, like many before us we decided to set up a honeymoon registry for our wedding. Honeymoon registries were certainly a topic of great debate in the past; however, I personally think that they are becoming more and more acceptable. Many couples have established homes by the time they get married nowadays, and the need for a large registry to fill an entire home is no longer there.

Sidenote: Since our honeymoon is a road trip and this post might be on the dry side, all photos are personal and of Nelson, who loves a good road trip (although is not invited on this one ;))

A blurry pic of Nelson's first roadtrip home - so little!!

While a honeymoon registry is a glorified way of asking for cash, we decided we would much rather have a fund where guests could feel like they are contributing to our honeymoon than having a small registry and letting them "take the hint". As wedding guests Mr. Narwhal and I typically give cash gifts. I do know that if there was a fund for a honeymoon we would love to be able to gift a couple money to help towards something specific on their trip of a lifetime, whether it be a massage, meal or funds to get them there.

Those paws! (Insert heart face)

When it came to the how of making the registry happen, I did my share of research on different sites, and we landed on Honeyfund for a platform. We are really committed to making sure whatever we register for actually happens, so when planning our fund, we broke the registry down into major categories and major locations throughout the trip. We didn't want to be so specific that if we end up taking a detour we won't feel like we aren't fulfilling something we asked for.

We kept a wide range of price points from $25-$350, and to the following "themes":

Car Rental and Gas
One of the biggest costs of our trip is the car rental and the gas of driving down the West coast. We combined both the rental and an approximate cost of gas for the trip (because who wants to give the gift of gas?)

Meals in Major Cities
We have broken down meal options to specific cities, as well as some broad in nature meals for wherever we need to stop.Hotels and B&B's
We are going to stay at a few hotels and B&B's along the way. We're using Airbnb for bed and breakfasts, and will also be camping for a majority of the nights. We are both huge fans of camping, and are incredibly excited to pitch our tent in some beautiful spots along the coast and in Yosemite. Our fund only covers the hotels and B&B locations we know we will be stopping at.Experiences
We also have a few experience-based options for our guests can contribute to, like Yosemite park passes, tickets to Disney and passes to the Integratron in Joshua Tree.

Nelson isn't a fan of car washes.

We already have our flights booked and paid for, so going on our trip isn't dependent on our registry. We just love the idea of going on our honeymoon after having just seen all of our friends and family at the wedding, and then being able to know that our Aunt and Uncle paid for our first night in Seattle, or our friends helped contribute to our car rental. Maybe it's just the sap in me, but I honestly get all emotional thinking about how much more special our honeymoon will feel knowing that our friends and family supported our first adventure as a married couple.